


Incorrigible

by Ayri



Series: One Shots, Mini-fics, Prompts [2]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series), Thomas Sanders Shorts (Web Series)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Background Character Death, Blood, Child Abandonment, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders Are Twins, Crime Fighting, Cussing, Dadceit, Dark, Dark Sides As Family (Sanders Sides), Death Threats, Demons, Derogatory Language, Dubious Morality, Explosions, Fake Parent to Actual Parent, Family Drama, Family Fluff, Family Issues, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Crack, Food, Found Family, Gen, Gender Identity, Good and Evil, Horror, Illusions, Injury, Insults, Kid Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Kid Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Kid Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Manipulation, Mild Gore, Minor Crack Fic Elements, Monsters, Morally Ambiguous Character, Night Terrors, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Deceit | Janus Sanders, Nonbinary Sleep | Remy Sanders, On and Off Sleepceit, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Third Person Omniscient, Pain, Play Fighting, Questioning, Sarcasm, Secret Identity, Superhero Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Superheroes, Supervillain Deceit | Janus Sanders, Supervillains, Tags Contain Spoilers, Tags May Change, Threats, Unethical Experimentation, Violence, Weapons, Youtuber Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, child endangerment
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:07:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27410926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ayri/pseuds/Ayri
Summary: Roman, Remus, and Virgil are young brothers with a small problem of real illusions they can't always control. The good news is that Janus doesn't mind taking on children with illusions that try to kill him. The bad news is that he's a supervillian. Well, bad news depending on who you ask.Shorts-style series
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Creativity | Roman Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus Sanders, Deceit | Janus Sanders/Sleep | Remy Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders
Series: One Shots, Mini-fics, Prompts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1749934
Comments: 24
Kudos: 114





	1. Dark Warehouses and Cold Blankets

**Author's Note:**

> Check the tags!
> 
> This series is **shorts** and will time-jump and requires prompts submissions to keep going.
> 
> ♪ [Incorrigible Playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6BZ9LEOvPO4D8gMC2eyDXB) ♪

Virgil shivered and buried himself deeper in the pile of blankets they slept in, huffing out a small puff of air in a cloud. Remus huddled closer to Virgil, pulling him in under his arm. Virgil sighed and pressed himself as close to the warmth as he could manage. It never seemed that cold when they had a nice warm house to return to. But the nights were hard, no matter how many stolen blankets they burrowed themselves in. Remus tried to heat Virgil up, but his hands were chilly, too.

“Uh, Vi? Re?” Roman got their attention nervously as he settled down into the blankets next to them. Virgil shuttered again when the cool air came under the blanket along with Roman. “Which one of yours is that?” Roman pointed to the corner with a hulking, shadowy figure breathing hard and gripping at the wall. It had six jagged arms on two bend digitigrade legs and a tail dragging on the floor. Its snout twitched as it sniffed around, but it didn’t have eyes to see them.

“Fuck!” Virgil shot and buried his head under the blankets. The shadow monster froze and stopped to sniff the air, holding its arms out to hunt around. It wasn’t able to find them this time and returned to prowling.

“Um, how would we _tell_?” Remus replied nervously, holding on to Virgil. “Shouldn’t we all… try to get rid of it?” He rubbed Virgil’s back. He suspected it was Virgil’s since he was the most terrified.

“It’s not mine. I don’t feel it,” Roman swallowed shakily and leaned in protectively. “And mine don’t normally look quite so…” Roman trailed off, motioning to it as it skulked around on the far end of the room. He assumed it could smell fear as its snout continued to test the air.

“What do you mean, don’t _feel_ it?” Virgil demanded shakily from under the blanket, refusing to resurface.

“That tugging feeling, I guess? I know if I try to summon one myself there’s this… _pulling_ in me,” Roman explained quietly, not wanting to attract the demon’s attention.

“Okay, ours are normally more… demony than yours. There’s like… a pull?” Remus confirmed, looking over to the monster. It was using all six arms to grope at a pillar. Roman nodded mutely, growing more scared of it by the minute. It was getting closer. “Do you think the pull is how we’re connected?” Remus motioned between himself and the hulking mass as it searched the area.

“Oh, huh,” Roman paused, curiously. He didn’t consider that.

“If we’re connected, we can, like, send orders to them, right? I mean, we’ve just been… avoiding them, but they’re ours, right? Maybe we could… _control_ them,” Remus suggested quietly, eyeballing the dark figure sniffing about the room.

“That’s great and all, but can we focus on getting _rid_ of that thing before it _finds us_?” Virgil hissed from under the protective layer of blankets, shaking from fear.

“I’ll help you, Virgil, okay? Remus, can you do it yourself?” Roman asked nervously, reaching under the blanket to take Virgil’s hand. Virgil gripped it tightly, yanking Roman over. He was cold and scared, and he had to calm down for it to work.

“I can listen to you,” Remus nodded, rubbing Virgil’s back fearfully.

“Um,” Roman swallowed. “Okay. Breathe in as deep as your lungs will let you. I’m right here for both of you. It won’t hear us, it’s all the way over there. Just, uh, close your eyes,” Roman tried to steady himself, breathing in as well. “Hold it,” Roman said in a strained voice. “Let it out,” Roman exhaled slowly. “Slower, Vi,” Roman squeezed Virgil’s hand, and he nodded blindly against Remus. “One more time,” Roman inhaled again and Virgil and Remus followed suit. The demonic being dissipated into smoke during the exhale. “We did it,” Roman breathed in relief and Remus let out a victorious cheer, holding both his arms in the air.

“Thanks,” Virgil said meekly, popping his head out from the blanket and looking around, confirming it was gone. “I know you wanna test the theory or whatever, but can we just go to sleep?” Virgil tiredly rubbed his face. “If I see another, I’m gonna lose it,” He shivered and yawned, shifting to lie down.

“Of course,” Roman reassured him and sighed, looking across the empty warehouse floor barely illuminated by the small electric lantern. “We’re right here,” Roman pulled himself under the blanket and Virgil slid to lay next to him. Remus looked around the warehouse once more before joining them in the pile.

“I wanna eat something warm tomorrow,” Virgil sighed, pulling his brothers closer on either side of him.

“We could scare some people out of one of those soup shops and just serve ourselves up,” Remus suggested, putting an arm behind his head as a pillow.

“Y-yeah,” Roman nodded, shivering a little. Virgil’s breathing evened out next to him in a few minutes while Roman stared above him into the overwhelming darkness of the abandoned floor. The battery in the lantern was dying again. He didn’t look forward to stealing another one. He hated having to resort to it every time.

“I wish it was still as easy to fall asleep as it was when we were his age,” Remus whispered quietly. He was finally warm with all three of them under the blankets, but things just weren’t right.

“I think he… trusts us. I’m glad we found somewhere to sleep, but I don’t feel much safer here,” Roman murmured back, folding his hands under the blanket. “It’s so cold and open,” He added, blinking meaninglessly against the dark.

“I just want a real home,” Remus replied sullenly under his breath. He didn’t want to wake Virgil. He got so moody if he didn’t sleep enough. They had plenty to deal with right now already.

“We’ll figure it out. We always do. We were on the streets two days ago. We could be somewhere nicer in another two? Or at least make this place less awful,” Roman proposed hopefully, though he didn’t entirely believe it himself. “I’d rather be in school,” He exhaled grimly through his nose. The school had heat and water.

“I prefer the dirty warehouse floor to seventh grade,” Remus joked darkly, shifting under the blankets to get more comfortable. His eyelids were starting to get heavy. They did so much running today and he was absolutely exhausted.

“I’ll take middle school over the warehouse floor, but the floor is better than that disgusting stroganoff casserole we had to eat,” Roman joked as well, appreciating the lightened mood. He was starting to drift in the dark, cold building with his brothers close.

“To tomorrow, right?” Remus proposed sleepily. There was a lost quality to his words, but Roman knew he was trying.

“Absotively,” Roman whispered back, his eyes slipping closed. “To tomorrow,” He repeated as his mind began drifting off to sleep.


	2. Knives and Demonic Bouncy Castles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dadceit and the Terror Children™ get a visitor.

“Remus, don’t set the couch on fire, the food is almost here,” Janus ran their hand through their hair as they watched Remus pointing his palm at the couch and staring intensely.

“Oh, it is? Cool,” Remus hopped up from sitting on the couch delightedly, holding his hand on the back for balance.

“Who cares if he sets it on fire?” Virgil pouted, squatting on the floor while his eyes followed Remus bouncing on the spot.

“You had an episode last time he set a fire in the couch, Virgil, and that’s considerably more destructive than the fire,” Janus explained gently and squatted down to look at Virgil in the eye.

“I can deal with it better now,” Virgil replied, looking away and pulling at his pointer finger. He twisted at it and stared at the floor.

“Liar,” Remus shot and leaned off the couch to ruffle Virgil’s hair. Virgil peered up at him and pouted angrily and held his finger over his lips.

“Go play in the yard until the food gets here. You can start fires out there where Virgil can’t accidentally destroy my things. There is a car out back you haven’t fully eradicated,” Janus explained, holding out a hand for Virgil. Virgil took it carefully, and Janus helped him off the floor.

“I thought one of Remus’s demons ate it,” Virgil stated, peering to the back door.

“It’s chewed up but still present. I’ll get you a school bus to wreck next time if you keep your rooms picked up for a week,” Janus smiled and walked to the exit.

“Yeah!” Virgil cheered with his arms in the air. “Fuck school!” He cried victoriously and hopped as they left the sitting area.

“Woo!” Remus roared and tumbled off the rear of the couch to follow them. Janus held open the back door, and Virgil and Remus barreled into the yard. Remus created a giant boar demon with tentacles of black goop, which started thrashing around the car. Janus leaned against the house and watched them play. Virgil stayed back nervously while the boar demolished the sedan.

“Share with your brother,” Janus ordered, and the boar stopped attacking the vehicle and ran up to Remus instead. It picked up Remus and set him on its back. Remus had a ring of black goo around his torso from the contact and played with it between his fingers.

“Go for it, Virgey!” Remus said, clapping and then being distracted by the lines of goop between his palms when he pulled away. He clapped a few more times to play with the goop.

“I dunno, what if I can’t control it again?” Virgil grumbled with an ashamed expression. He shoved his hands into his pocket and kicked at the dirt.

“We’re here to help. It’s better to use it than let it build up,” Janus responded reassuringly. Virgil chewed his lip for a moment before turning to the crunched up sedan. Thick black shadows engulfed the car and in a twisting motion. The shadows shifted into a beast with thousands of eyes, and there was a strident crunching sound that echoed through the air. Virgil raised his hand shakily, and the demon disintegrated, leaving behind crushed and decimated parts of a machine where it once stood.

“I did it!” Virgil beamed and leaped up and down with his fists balled in excitement.

“Good job, Virgil,” Janus clapped with a light smile. Virgil made a proud expression and stood up straighter. He dusted off his shirt and beamed at Janus.

“Race me!” Remus challenged from on top of the boar, waving at Virgil with gooey hands.

“You always cheat!” Virgil shot angrily, the proper posture disappearing in an instant. Virgil curled into his regular slouch and glared at Remus.

“It’s not _cheating_ if there’re no rules!” Remus crossed his arms and stuck out his tongue.

“Give Virgil a head start,” Janus demanded, offering them a compromise.

“That’s not _fair_ ,” Remus whined. Virgil closed his eyes and strained for a minute. Smoke rose from the earth and condensed into an iridescent dragon with eight eyes. The dragon roared and stretched out its wings. Virgil leaned to the side to examine it anxiously, confirming it wasn’t rouge before he mounted it and held its neck for balance.

“There’s no fairness with no rules, _either_. He’s younger than you, and needs the help occasionally,” Janus reminded Remus, walking up to the snarling angry boar and Remus on top of it. The dragon strode over towards the boar and Virgil watched the beast with concern. “I’m sure you’ll do fine even with a head start. Both of you keep it to the ground, please,” The boar stopped growling and Remus nodded with a delighted face.

“’Kay,” Virgil and Remus called out as the boar and dragon stampeded over to the mangled remains of the car.

“3-2-1, Go, V!” Remus barked, and the dragon bolted off, Virgil gripping tight with a determined expression. “3-2-1, Go, me!” Remus yelled, and the boar charged off. They dashed across the yard, yelling at each other as obstacles appeared and disappeared. They nearly hit the electrified fence line and turned around in a skid, Remus gaining on the pile that was once a car, but Virgil’s dragon ducked low to the ground and caught up. Remus peered down to Virgil’s stoked face and jettisoned forward with a pressurized stream of ooze. He just barely managed to win with his goo jetpack.

“In your face!” Remus cackled and Virgil punched him off the boar in response. The boar disappeared when Remus hit the ground.

“I win!” Virgil announced proudly, the dragon stepping on Remus and pinning him down. Remus rolled his eyes. He wrapped himself in bubbling darkness briefly and a giant muscle-bound creature took his place, pushing the dragon off. The dragon started snarling and thrashing, and it terrified Virgil, holding tight and trying not to get thrown off.

“Wait, _no_ , V, it’s okay!” Remus pleaded. The creature held up its hands and melted down to reveal Remus with the same pose. Remus pulled Virgil off the dragon with a desperate expression. Virgil tumbled to the dirt and held his hands over his mouth as he watched the dragon take off into the yard, jumping around wildly and spitting flames. Janus moved from a dead stop into a sprint towards the dragon and shifted into a massive golden dragon twice its size. Janus pinned Virgil’s rouge dragon down with their forelegs as it lashed out.

“Virgil, I’ve got it,” Janus shouted forcefully, the voice booming across the yard. “You can do this, _take back control_ ,” The black dragon thrashed about beneath Janus’s giant claws but couldn’t escape. Janus had to struggle to keep it pinned, but eventually, it dissipated underneath them into smoke and Janus’s massive claws hit the dirt beneath it. Janus flew over to the boys and turned back, taking Virgil’s small trembling hand. “You did a marvelous job getting it away from you and sending it off,” Virgil nodded and gripped on to Janus’s cloak fearfully. Janus held Virgil’s head and frowned at him as he shivered.

“Is the food here yet?” Remus inquired hopefully, putting his palm on Virgil’s back for comfort. Janus used their other hand to check the alerts on their phone.

“Yes, it’s been dropped off. Do you want to come with me?” Janus smiled tenderly at Virgil and Remus. Virgil nodded slightly and Remus shook the dirt off of himself.

Janus bent down to pick up Virgil and carry him. Virgil held on to Janus’s cloak still, but he was breathing easier and shaking less. Remus jumped on Janus’s back, clinging with a grin. Janus shifted another pair of arms to hold him. Janus shot a concerned gaze to them both before heading inside. Janus walked back through the house and into the compound quietly, and Virgil settled down further in their arms. Remus’s head bobbed side to side, thinking about food, but otherwise stayed still. Janus shifted other hands as needed to traverse the complex way to their delivery. They walked out the front and down the path that led to the towering concrete outer wall.

“Would one of you want to grab it, or should I?” Janus prompted, facing Remus on their shoulder expectantly.

“I’ll get it!” Remus agreed to get the food with a wide smile. He held out his hand and focused outside of the wall. A massive salamander-type beast came crawling over the barrier with a bag of delivery in its mouth a minute later. “Why didn’t we go out to eat today?” Remus glanced to Janus as the salamander walked over to their side.

“I’m working on more plans at the moment. How would you two like to dismantle city hall brick by brick?” Janus offered airily with a mischievous grin.

“That sounds fun!” Virgil chirped cheerfully, nodding as he released Janus’s cloak.

“I love wreckin’ stuff,” Remus declared, punching into his open palm and grinding his fist in. Virgil made a subdued explosion noise and mimed it with his hands.

“You’re my favourite little distractions,” Janus shifted another arm to hold open the trap door for the salamander to go back inside the compound.

“Did you learn anything fun today?” Janus inquired as he walked in after the salamander.

“I learned about dragons,” Virgil nodded, expressing satisfaction. “I don’t know what he did,” He motioned to Remus with his head.

“Projectile bombs,” Remus crawled up on Janus’s back and put his head on Janus’s shoulder. “It’s not that useful, but I did have lots of fun,” He grinned and bounced in Janus’s arms.

“Remus blew up the library, so I accidentally attacked him,” Virgil admitted sheepishly, glancing up to Janus through his bangs.

“He looks fine,” Janus punctuated their statement with a small shrug. Remus snickered to himself. Virgil made a face at Remus briefly, but it dropped into guilt after a second.

“It was just a shadow demon,” Virgil replied quietly, poking his pointer fingers together.

“Virgil choked me out!” Remus smiled and shifted up to wrap his arms around Janus’s neck.

“I managed to get it to stop. Remus coughed a little, but it wasn’t that long,” Virgil mumbled guiltily.

“Warn your brother the next time you’re going to study something that could spook him, please. And do practice that kind of thing in a training room so you don’t _actually_ destroy the library. Did you study anything useful?” Janus continued, stroking Virgil’s hair to calm him down. Virgil stared down and pulled at his bangs.

“I think the dragons are useful,” Virgil folded his arms and nodded, peering up to Janus.

“I’ve been learning how to pick locks,” Remus announced cheerily, melting over Janus’s shoulder. The salamander climbed up onto the table and melted into nothing, dropping the bag of food in the middle of the dinner table.

“You’re a cool dragon,” Virgil complimented Janus with a happier tone and jumped out of their arms.

“Thankss,” Janus hissed with a morphed reptile tongue flicking out. Virgil giggled as he climbed up onto the step stool to wash his hands at the sink. “Which lock have you been training on?” Janus turned their head to Remus, who was looking thrilled about the food over Janus’s shoulder.

“I’ve been practicing creating the picks, doing stuff that small and specific is hard. They keep slithering off,” Remus rolled over Janus’s shoulder to jump off of Janus. He landed on the floor and hopped into a chair at the table.

“Remus, hold on, when is the last time you washed your hands?” Janus stopped Remus before he fully sat down. Remus groaned dramatically and got up, heading to the sink. Virgil was smug as he dried his hands and went to go sit at the table. “How about you, Virgil, can you make small things?” Janus turned to look at him.

“Mine are shaped right, but they usually attack. Making stuff that isn’t alive is hard,” Virgil grumbled, shaking his head. Remus washed his hands, producing various upset noises next to Janus.

“You made a very convincing lasagna the other day. I wasn’t aware it was an illusion until I bit in and it tasted of raspberry pie,” Janus complimented and washed their hands after Remus hopped off the stool to dry his hands.

“The cheese turned into a demon and tried to eat the couch, though,” Virgil muttered, leaning on one arm and drumming his fingers on the table.

“Sometimes cheese monsters try to eat couches,” Remus shrugged dismissively. “It’s a fact of life,” He sat back up in the chair again and Janus pulled out the food containers with multiple hands, placing them in front of Virgil and Remus after confirming the contents quickly. Janus sat at the table with the boys and pulled their container close.

“If you morphed your hand into lasagna, could I eat it and it _be_ lasagna and you can just morph a new hand?” Remus pestered Janus, cracking open the top and picking up his burger to eat immediately. Virgil picked up his grilled cheese and studied Janus curiously, tilting his head and examining Janus’s hand.

“You would have bitten a chunk out of me, Remus. I do have nerves. I don’t desire to test if it would _actually_ be lasagna,” Janus refused outright and opened their food container of steak and vegetables. They picked up the steak and ate a bite out of it with sharp carnivorous teeth. Virgil giggled and also attacked his grilled cheese, fake gnawing on it before taking a real bite.

“Boo. So are we gonna fuck anything up soon, dadceit?” Remus glanced up expectantly, taking a large bite of his burger and shoving a French fry in his mouth.

“I suppose we could hit another bank before my plans that involve city hall. There are _hundreds_ of them,” Janus replied airily, waving their other hand in the air.

“Did… um… Ro say if he was coming over anytime soon?” Virgil pleaded hopefully, picking at a fry.

“He hasn’t called,” Janus responded off-handedly and faced away. Virgil’s face fell, and he continued picking apart a fry.

“You’ll probably see him if he doesn’t realize it’s _us_ as the bank,” Remus grumbled. “We can go as different villains or awesome raptors,” He suggested with a scheming expression.

“I don’t wanna trick him into fighting us…” Virgil muttered, picking at his grilled cheese now, tearing off tiny pieces. “You can call and pretend to be his mom or something?” Virgil suggested, staring pleadingly at Janus. “Then it won’t be weird? I only wanna know when he might come. I mean, it would be weird if somebody who knows him didn’t call after a while, right?” Virgil rambled slightly, making excuses and hoping Janus would say yes.

“If it would make you feel better. I do love Remus’s raptor-driven bank heist idea, though. Do you two think you make a herd? It would be delightfully anti-society,” Janus purred and took another bite of steak.

“We can _try_!” Remus declared before ramming a handful of fries in his mouth.

“Let us practice it first. But, I appreciate the enthusiasm,” Janus smiled softly at Remus and nodded. “Quit picking at your food and eat it, Virgil. I’ll call Roman to see if he wants to schedule a visit,” Janus added, their tone somewhat exasperated, but not agitated.

“I think I saw on the news that he’s figured out flying,” Virgil responded brightly, grinning. “Maybe he’ll show us!” He added, miming flying off with a fry.

“We can figure it out ourselves,” Remus scowled at Virgil, picking up the plastic silverware and pulling out the knife.

“Yes, you’ve had so much success. Just keep practicing near the ground, please,” Janus sighed, shaking their head.

“Stupid Judgement prolly showed him how,” Remus mumbled, stabbing at his fries with a plastic knife and eating them off the end.

“Judgement has wings, and I’m pretty certain they’re magic. I looked it up ‘cause I wanted wings and I’m positive he’s breaking the laws of physics,” Virgil objected, dipping his fries into a cup of tomato soup.

“Yes, he couldn’t take a punch as well as he does with hollow bones. It was good to look that up. Judgement and Rumination both have some magic bullshit going on, that’s very astute,” Janus complimented Virgil, and he smiled brightly and blushed a little. Janus got an alert and checked their phone. “Ah, well, we do have a visitor today, even if it’s not Roman,” Janus announced blithely, smiling at their screen.

“Is it Remy?” Remus demanded eagerly, stabbing directly through his burger.

“Yes,” Janus disarmed the traps at the secret entrance. “Fae must be bored. Finish your dinner and make a bouncy castle or something,” Janus requested, taking another bite out of his steak. Virgil and Remus excitedly returned to eating. “Don’t forget to breathe,” Janus reminded them. They both took a deep, sarcastic breath. Janus rolled their eyes at the pair and they continued to eat much too quickly. Janus leaned on their elbow and lazily finished their steak.

“Babes!” Remy exclaimed as fae walked into the kitchen. Virgil ate his last bite of grilled cheese at the same time.

“Remy!” Virgil and Remus cheered, both through mouths of food.

“Hello, darling. Let the boys finish eating and they’ll entertain you,” Janus told faer, picking up a roasted broccoli floret to eat.

“We’re gonna create a bouncy castle!” Remus announced as if it was a summer blockbuster film, making his voice as deep as he could.

“Nice. Is it going to attack me?” Remy smirked playfully and swiped one of Virgil’s fries as fae sat between Janus and Virgil at the dinner table.

“Almost certainly,” Janus warned faer blithely. “It’s half the fun. We’ll bring knives to pop the balloons,” Janus recommended lightly while Remy stole another fry.

“Are y’all still working on non-living illusions?” Remy leaned into the dinner table and plundered some of Janus’s food as well.

“Yeah, they’re hard,” Virgil nodded sagely, pulling his mouth to the side.

“You’ll get the hang of it. Roman seems to be doing okay,” Remy commented and flipped faer hand. Remus pouted angrily, knocking his fist on the table. Janus exhaled in annoyance at Remus’s outburst.

“Yeah! I want to learn how he flies!” Virgil told faer excitedly, raising his hands in the air.

“Can you guys make invisible illusions?” Remy proposed and hijacked more of Virgil’s fries. Fae also dipped one in the tomato soup.

“Um… Hm…” Virgil thought hard and held out his hands. Virgil strained his face with the effort, scrunching it up tightly while he made the attempt. A small line of blood dripped from his nose.

“That’s enough of that, Virgil,” Janus warned him, and Virgil stopped and exhaled harshly.

“Here,” Virgil said, holding out his opened palm. Remy reached in the air twice before fae picked up an invisible rod. Fae squeezed along the shaft curiously.

“Oh, you did it! Send it away before it kills me,” Remy requested and handed it back to Virgil. He tapped it and Remy returned to Virgil’s fries. Virgil wiped his nose on his sleeve and sniffed.

“Why do you ask?” Janus pushed the rest of their food in front of Remy. Remy happily started eating it.

“Maybe Roman uses an invisible flying disk or something and controls it with enough force to lift him. He’s better at making illusions fly despite physics than you two. Or possibly, like, a giant invisible pterodactyl. His flying doesn’t look that natural in person,” Remy suggested, but fae was much more interested in the food.

“Ro didn’t attack you, did he?” Remus accused Roman, feeling incredibly betrayed.

“Nah, you know he doesn’t do that. I wasn’t wreaking any havoc today, anyway. I only reorganized a department store and went to my favourite coffee shop. Ro came out when somebody called in an appearance. But it’s not like I was doing anything wrong. He left me alone. They love me at that coffee shop,” Remy shrugged, taking more roasted vegetables from Janus’s container.

“You tip in bundles of twenties, of _course_ they love you,” Janus chuckled, leaning back in the chair and crossing their arms.

“You can finish my fries,” Virgil informed Remy, pushing his box towards faer.

“Let’s not make anything else invisible until you can make inanimate things more consistently,” Janus warned them, getting up to wash their hands again to remove the food remnants. Remy picked up the takeout container and drank the fries, tilting them into faer face. “Try to practice some more before bed,” Janus told Virgil and Remus over their shoulder as they washed their hands.

“But I want to make an invisible flying pterodactyl,” Remus moaned sullenly. “Virgil got to make something,” Remus pointed to Virgil with a large pout on his face.

“What _did_ you make, Virgil?” Remy asked, chewing the fries.

“I imagined a cursed staff, I dunno what _actually_ came out,” Virgil shrugged and made an unsure expression. He eyed Remy up and down, but saw nothing weird.

“Do you feel cursed, Remy?” Janus inquired mildly and dried their hands on the towel.

“Nah, no more than usual,” Remy responded after examining faer hands for a second and swallowing the wad of fries.

“No, it was supposed to _fire_ curses, I wouldn’t have cursed Remy,” Virgil protested, pouting out his lower lip at Janus.

“I appreciate that. Go make that giant fucking bouncy castle, me and D will be right out,” Remy pat Virgil on the shoulder, pointed to the exit with faer thumb over faer shoulder.

“Come on, Remus!” Virgil nearly shouted, hopping off the dining room chair and running to the back door. Remus cheered and chased after him. Janus sat back down at the table after watching them slam the door shut.

“Do I owe the pleasure of this visit to anything?” Janus entwined together their fingers and rested their head on the bridge they formed, propped up on their elbows.

“Bored,” Remy replied plainly, eating the last of the remaining food. “Perhaps some pleasure later if the mood hits me,” Fae winked at Janus. Janus chuckled and rolled their eyes in response.

“Let’s grab some steak knives and join them before one of them kills the other,” Janus requested after a moment and stood up to head into the kitchen.

“You’re still okay with the whole ‘dad’ thing? I’d think it’d get irritating after a while,” Remy’s tone was blithe and fae got up to follow after Janus. “Though, I’m not sure those two couldn’t be boring if they tried,” Remy snickered to himself and wiped off faer mouth on a napkin.

“They’re very useful, despite all the chaos and hallucinated murder beasts trying to kill us,” Janus’s tone was completely unconcerned. “Would you rather they be back on the streets?” They asked, eyeing Remy judgmentally.

“It was fun when they were terrorizing the boulevards, but I suppose I like the little bastards too much to let ‘em die,” Remy grinned, standing up from the table, wiping off faer hands on the napkin.

“I think they’re almost there. I do wish Roman would come by and help them,” Janus crossed their arms and looked out the window to the bouncy castle monstrosity wobbling violently.

“He’s probably wired differently from them. He had it just as bad as them, and then something clicked and suddenly he’s a badass. I can’t believe how dumb Judgement and Rumination are that they haven’t notice that they’re getting help from a god damn 12-year-old,” Remy laughed, pulling a knife out of a block and tossing it at Janus. Janus caught it and Remy pulled one for faeself.

“I mean they’re _heroes_ , Remy, of course, they’re idiots,” Janus sighed dramatically, shaking their head in disappointment.

“Are you calling Ro an idiot?” Remy arched an eyebrow and opened the rear door.

“He’s a _child_ , he doesn’t understand how complex things are. He’ll come back when he realizes I’m correct,” Janus waved the knife in a circle before spinning it in their hand.

Remus and Virgil were whooping with laughter as they bounced inside, the house wobbling violently from all the motions. Remy climbed in, followed closely by Janus. Remy shouted as fae dropped down and bounded back up to standing, holding the knife between faer teeth. Fae cackled and ricocheted off the walls while Remus and Virgil cheered faer on. Janus wobbled on the uneven ground at first, but once they got used to the motion, they joined the children who were shrieking in delight as they jumped around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chaos and Arson? Chaos and Arson.


	3. T-Rexes and Velociraptors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A paleontologically incorrect dinosaur rampage and an argument at a coffee shop.

Virgil looked nervously at him and his brother’s pictures in the paper marking them as missing kids. He was presenting as a random stranger he saw on the way over, just like Remus, but he didn’t like that his actual picture was out there. Janus, also looking like an indiscriminate pedestrian, frowned and took the paper out of Virgil’s hands.

“You’ll be fine. You’re doing a fantastic job right now. I’ll hide you myself if you need to stop, okay?” Janus assured him softly, folding the paper and dropping it in a passing recycling bin near a bus stop. Remus skipped slightly and Janus put their hand on Remus’s shoulder. “Adults don’t skip when they walk,” Janus warned him. “Neither do children your age, honestly,” They added thoughtfully.

“But _raptors_!” Remus whined, pouting slightly as he crossed his illusory arms and tapped his fingers on his figure’s biceps.

“It will be all the more fun when they come from nowhere. As much as I loved your ‘raptor stampede through town’ idea, I think it’s too risky for you two to hold that many figments for so long. We’re almost there, and then you can let all of your raptor dreams come true,” Janus patted Remus’s shoulder, and they grinned widely.

“What are you going to be?” Virgil asked, nervously slouching and looking around at all the people they passed walking to the bank.

“I think a tyrannosaurus would be suitable to join the raptor stampede,” Janus smirked and crossed their arms as they stood tall. Remus nodded, practically vibrating with excitement.

“Is this a… money thing or a notoriety thing?” Virgil asked carefully, glancing at the strangers in the street again.

“Neither. We’ll steal some money to throw about, but we’re just here to disrupt society in general and have some fun,” Janus replied plaintively, looking smug.

“Shouldn’t fae be here, then?” Remus asked, looking confused. “This is faer kind of thing,” He motioned to the area.

“Fae didn’t want to get trampled by the raptors. I think fae is at Moonlighters getting coffee. Fae will cheer us on, I’m sure,” Janus responded. “Alright, I think it would be the most of a spectacle if you created a ‘portal’ for your velociraptors to appear through. As if there was a new super on the scene. The media would be a circus for weeks,” Janus’s tone dripped with malicious excitement at that concept. They stopped a few buildings down from the bank.

“I think I can make the portal if Remus can make the raptors look like they’re coming out of it,” Virgil offered, looking to Remus hopefully.

“I can do that! I’ve been practicing that!” Remus said excitedly. “How are we going to clear the bank?”

“Just send something inconspicuous in to make sure there’s no one who isn’t capable of escaping,” Janus shrugged.

“Okay. A bat?” Virgil said squirting his eyes and a little pitch-black bat popped into existence and flew down the street into the bank. Virgil’s eyes glassed over, and Janus kept a hand on Virgil’s illusory body to keep him stable while he couldn’t see. “There’s a lady with a baby carriage at the teller,” Virgil announced. They waited a few minutes until Virgil held his thumb up. “Clear,” Virgil blinked a few times as his vision came back to him.

“Create the portal. Make it start from something small and make it grow for some warning time. Can you produce a haunted windy noise?” Janus requested, keeping their hand on Virgil’s shoulder.

“Haunted noises are _easy_ ,” Virgil replied smugly. Just in front of a bank, a deep black portal grew and made a wild howling noise that seemed to echo endlessly. It grew gradually, giving people plenty of time to clear the area, the howling noise growing more and more deafening as its size doubled and tripled all the way until you could fit a train through it. People ran screaming in terror as soon as they recognized the portal for what it was. The people in the bank poured out quickly after someone ran in to alert them.

“I’m going to shrink down and ‘come out of the portal’ myself. You run into the alley after Remus starts with the raptors and you can join after the chaos starts. Give yourselves some different coloured feathers so I can monitor you,” Janus ordered them firmly. Remus and Virgil both nodded in agreement. Virgil looked intense, and Remus was shaking with glee. “Go ahead,” Janus waved and shrunk down to go join the impending dinosaur fray.

A velociraptor cry sounded before Remus made them appear through the portal. They were roughly double the size of a normal velociraptor and all covered in similar brown and tan feathers. They ran away into the alley as the velociraptors started tearing up the street. Virgil released the portal illusion, and the pair wrapped themselves in illusions of velociraptors as a tyrannosaur's cry broke through the crashing sounds from Remus’s stampede. The brothers stretched out their illusions of black-feathered velociraptors. Virgil raised several more velociraptors to join them, and the velociraptors began ramming into the walls to break through the backside of the bank.

The velociraptors alone didn’t have enough force, so Remus summoned a wrecking ball to slam through the wall, which exploded into nothing as they broke through and joined the raptor stampede barrelling through the bank and wrecking it up. Janus stomped through the front wall and a few velociraptors made their way to the day safe to pilfer any on-hand funds. Janus roared again, bursting through more of the front wall while the velociraptors crashed around and tore things into pieces. A small herd of the stampede took claw-fulls of money from the day safe, and Virgil kept his distance from most of the velociraptors while Remus delighted in busting the place up.

“Send the money holding raptors into the streets to spread it,” Janus ordered them. The sirens grew ever closer as they rampaged through the building. Velociraptors ran out from the hole in the wall with their claws full of cash and went in every direction down the street, leaving trails of money on the way. Virgil and Remus sent them down crooks and alleys to dissipate them, and Virgil waited nervously near Janus’s foot. Janus finally turned around out of the bank. “A new portal, we should get out of here before any heroes show up,” Janus requested privately. Virgil opened up the portal illusion and made it grow faster this time.

The velociraptors crashed into the portal illusion and dissipated and the trio rushed into the street to walk into the portal themselves. Janus used the cover of the portal to turn into a pterodactyl and picked up the boys with his feet before flying off. Virgil let go of the portal illusion and his raptor illusion as soon as they were above the buildings with a pained gasp. Janus gripped tighter onto his smaller form, not letting him drop. Remus held his disguise a little longer until dropping it with an exhausted exhale.

“Woo!” Remus cheered weakly, holding his arms in the air. “What’s for dinner and also can I take a nap?” He exhaled hard and slumped his arms down. Remus and Virgil’s faces were both coated in a sheen of sweat, and Virgil still bore a pained expression.

“Would you like to dine and dash?” Janus asked, glancing down at them as they flew.

“I don’t think I can hold any more illusions,” Virgil shook his head slowly. “Can we just get fast food? We can hide while you pick it up,” He offered hopefully.

“ _Only_ if you eat your vegetables tomorrow,” Janus bargained with them in a flat tone.

“Never!” Remus whined indignantly, and Janus rolled their eyes.

“If you get us ice cream we will,” Virgil struggled as he spoke, gasping a little.

“Yeah, okay,” Remus conceded, sounding less upset and looking at Virgil in concern.

“Fine,” Janus agreed, a little annoyed, and morphed from a pterodactyl into a massive eagle.

“Did Remy give you the pterodactyl idea?” Remus asked curiously.

“Yes, fae did. It seemed like the best way to escape without you two taking new illusions,” Janus explained, looking around the area. Their eyes landed between a few buildings and started to head down to a building top. “Alright, I’ll be landing in an alley to take a new form. Keep away from strangers. I’ll come back for you shortly,” Janus stated, and was met with half-hearted fatigued cheers from the brothers in their talons.

— ✧ —

“Holy shit, did you see that wall explode?” Remy cheered at the TV monitor while seated at a table in Moonlighters. Andy rejoiced with faer from behind the register when another wall went down.

“What’s all the ruckus?” A voice asked from the back. A yawning Patton stepped out of the backroom looking confused until his eyes landed on Remy and his expression switched to anger. “Sleep, get _out_ of here!” Patton shouted his short dark curls bounced around his glasses frames as he motioned intensely towards the door. Remy sipping faer drink with faer feet up, completely ignoring him.

“Look at those little raptor bastards go!” Remy laughed, looking at the screen pointedly, not acknowledging Patton. Andy cheered again when there was another explosion, throwing his hands in the air.

“Andy, don’t encourage him,” Patton huffed, shaking his head and crossing his arms.

“It’s _faer_ ,” Remy grunted quietly, shooting Patton a glare.

“Sorry, Mr. Star,” Andy sighed and slumped slightly on the counter.

“Don’t be so hard on the kid,” Remy complained, taking another long sip of faer iced coffee.

“Sleep, _leave_! I’ll report you!” Patton hissed, leaning over the counter and looking expressly at Remy.

“Like y’all did yesterday? Bitch, _please_. I’m a paying customer and I’m not doing anything wrong,” Remy shrugged, crossing faer legs the other way on the chair across from faer.

“Well, then stop shouting and get your feet off the chair,” Patton grumbled and tapped his fingers on his arms restlessly.

“Look, they went back through before anybody could even get there,” Remy gave some cheery accolades and moved faer feet off the other chair and leaned back with faer legs spread instead.

“Who got away?” Patton asked, coming out from behind the counter to look at the TV.

“A stampede of raptors and a T-Rex. You just missed it,” Remy replied, motioning to the screen with faer drink.

“They came out of a portal,” Andy provided from behind the register. Patton bit his knuckle nervously.

“I can’t believe I missed it,” Patton muttered to himself, the disappointment obvious in his tone. “Is it a new super villain?” He asked after a long pause, sounding distracted as he stared at the screen. Remy hummed and drank faer drink, looking away as fae ignored the question.

“No villains came out said anything,” Andy leaned forward on the counter as he replied. “There are no supers in town that can make portals or control velociraptors. I mean, maybe Ace can,” He mused, his tone unsure.

“Don’t be silly, Ace is a superhero,” Patton shook his head and chewed on his thumb, not looking away from the TV screen.

“Well, it sure didn’t look like anybody else’s handiwork. Unless someone was afraid of a portal opening and freakin’ dinosaurs attacking the bank specifically,” Andy tapped his shoe against the floor and made an annoyed expression at the TV news report.

“This was a much bigger scale than Paranoia has ever done in the past,” Patton grumbled, chewed on his nail as he watched the news repeat the footage. Remy cackled as the tyrannosaurs broke through the walls again on the repeated footage. “If you insist on staying, can you at least not use your powers on the staff or the clients?” Patton leaned against the counter and shot Remy a look. Patton’s incredibly resigned tone made Remy smile.

“Aw, Mr. Star, faer powers work way better than coffee and I have _three_ essays due,” Andy whined in objection, holding his hands together in a pleading gesture.

“Oh yeah? Sure, you can stay up, babe,” Remy waved faer hand and Andy’s eyes shot wide open. Andy gasped and shook out his head and arms.

“Woo, that’s the kick!” Andy declared, shuffling his feet before taking a deep breath to calm back down. Patton glared down at Remy’s reclined position.

“What? He wanted it,” Remy smirked smugly and sipped faer drink. “It was a favour to a friend. You want a nap, Pat?” Remy threatened and held up faer fingers on faer free hand, wiggling them menacingly.

“Oh my goodness, _no_! What if the portal re-opens somewhere near here?” Patton protested with an exasperated expression and angry tone.

“Eh, then I’ll see if my powers work on raptors,” Remy refuted him flippantly, rolling faer eyes.

“You literally have sleep powers, why do you even need coffee?” Patton threw his arms up in the air in frustration. “Why do you have to terrorize us, specifically?” He added bitterly, glaring at Remy.

“Mx. Sleep isn’t terrorizing me,” Andy shrugged with a brief smile. Remy nodded appreciatively at him and held up faer cup in a silent toast.

“Andy, stop encouraging h—faer,” Patton huffed and crossed his arms after catching himself.

“Let the kid do what he wants or you’re not sleeping for three days,” Remy raised faer eyebrow at Patton threateningly.

“You _wouldn’t_ ,” Patton deadpanned, looking to Sleep with concern. “Who would order the beans and bake the muffins?” He added, pointing at himself.

“I don’t come here _every_ day, I can just go somewhere else. I’m not one of those _run-screaming-from_ kinds of supers,” Remy drawled and kicked up faer feet on the crossbar of the chair across from fae. Remy’s bored expression twitched with annoyance.

“I’m pretty certain Andy’s just too sleep-deprived to see sense and not serve you,” Patton sighed, shaking his head.

“Sleep helps me out when I have insomnia, actually,” Andy corrected Patton, holding up a finger. “I’ll only be sleep deprived _tonight_ ,” He smiled and stood up straight behind the counter.

“You’re a _villain_ , why are you helping my staff sleep?” Patton asked incredulously, kicking the air.

“I’m _not_ a villain, you’re just a narrow-minded idiot,” Remy rolled faer eyes and finished faer drink with a loud noise from the straw.

“I’m not narrow-minded! You’ve been spotted running around with Deceit before!” Patton shot in objection, pointing to Remy.

“Because I’m _bored_ , duh,” Remy got up from the chair and headed to the door, shoving faer free hand in the long red trench leather trench coat pocket. “Deceit’s not a villain either, anyway. People just believe whatever Judgement and Rumination say blindly, the dumb bitches,” Remy added darkly and crushed the cup in faer hands with a loud crack of the plastic. “Good luck with those essays,” Remy added less grimly and waved specifically to Andy before fae chucked the cup in the garbage can on the way out.

“Judgement and Rumination are _good guys_ , unlike any of the supers Sleep hangs around,” Patton grumbled angrily, glowering at Remy who was on the way out.

“Sleep tips well and has never caused a problem _you_ didn’t instigate by arguing with faer,” Andy defended Remy again and flipped his hand at Patton. “Sleep’s never intentionally killed anybody. Fae just likes to mess things up. Fae told me fae reorganized a department store yesterday after putting the staff to sleep. Like, why? That’s so much _effort_. But it’s not _evil_ ,” Andy pointed out, poking his hand on the countertop.

“That doesn’t mean Sleep isn’t a super villain,” Patton frowned, still staring at the door even after Remy left. “Or a good person!” He grumbled bitterly.

“I’m just saying the stats say differently, and I mean it when I say fae tips really well,” Andy shrugged with a small smile. Patton huffed and his bangs blew aside. “I mean, there wasn’t a death toll with the raptors at the bank, but whoever has those powers is probably much more dangerous. Deceit rarely hurts people, too. I’m not saying Deceit is without fault, but maybe Sleep is on to something about them being not _that_ bad,” Andy stated thoughtfully, leaning back on the counter.

“Deceit has been working with those new supers, though. Fiend and Paranoia. And they aren’t as _controlled_ as Deceit,” Patton objected, nervously watching the news again. The reporters were speculating about the new super villain recklessly.

“Yeah. I mean, Ace won’t fight them. If someone like _Ace_ won’t engage, they must be pretty spooky to fight,” Andy mused with an impressed hum.

“Paranoia is hard to deal with. Most of the destruction comes from Fiend, though,” Patton stated, tapping his finger to his chin and reading the subtitles on the screen.

“Oh, have you been targeted by one of Paranoia’s… fear thingies?” Andy asked, waving his hand as if trying to remember the word.

“Yeah, it’s terrifying,” Patton shivered involuntarily and gripped his arms.

“Paranoia rarely attacks non-law enforcement, I’m surprised you were targeted,” Andy replied, not sounding the least surprised.

“How did you know what?” Patton asked curiously, arching an eyebrow at Andy curiously.

“A subreddit for supers in the city. Mostly kids trying to get Rumination to come to help them with something stupid, but there are a few people who track statistics and analyze attack patterns. Sleep told me about it. Apparently, fae keeps an eye on it. Fae says most of the theories are ludicrous, but it’s more accurate than the news if you’re discerning enough,” Andy informed him, glancing at the front door before looking back at the TV.

“I didn’t know there was one. I wouldn’t believe Sleep’s opinion on the accuracy, though. Still a super villain. Maybe fae helps fill it with misinformation or something,” Patton suggested sourly.

“Eh, I just like seeing what Sleep is up to. The news doesn’t normally track fae because fae isn’t destructive or loud or anything,” Andy responded dismissively, eyes glued to the TV screen once more.

“Can you text me a link to it?” Patton’s face was intrigued as he folded his hands to add to his plea.

“Sure, but, uh… please don’t go there just to hate on supers,” Andy told him nervously, chewing on his lip.

“Why would I hate on supers?” Patton asked incredulously, taken aback by the implication.

“You yell at Sleep literally every time fae comes and you keep forgetting faer pronouns,” Andy rolled his eyes, shooting Patton a frustrated look.

“I don’t mean to—” Patton held up his hands and looked around.

“Mr. Star, you treat everybody super nicely _other_ than Sleep. And all fae does is come in and drink coffee,” Andy insisted, putting his foot down. “You probably don’t remember because you don’t associate faer with normal people or something. But Sleep is a loyal customer. Everyone here but _you_ loves faer. Well, not normally the customers. But the _staff_ do. I think Toby went clubbing with faer once,” Andy motioned with his arms to the shop.

“I’ll be better about faer pronouns, but Sleep is a _super villain_ , Andy!” Patton said angrily.

“Faer super _morally ambiguous_ at worst. You’d think you’d like someone more that spends so much freakin’ money here,” Andy rolled his eyes and leaned on the counter again. “Sleep’s cleared out and the imminent raptor danger is over, people will probably start coming back in soon,” Andy said off-handedly, changing the subject, but Patton kept making a pleading face. “Fine, I’ll send you that link later if you can promise not to hate on supers,” Andy held up a finger critically at Patton.

“I won’t. I’m not prejudiced against supers. I’m a fan,” Patton reassured him emphatically. Andy eyed Patton suspiciously but said nothing further, despite clearly biting back a sarcastic remark. He just nodded. Patton went back into the back room with a sigh and his hands shoved deep into his sweater pockets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _b e g a y d o c r i m e s_


	4. Patches and Cables

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman, Remus, and Virgil's mother takes them for "treatment" for their "issues".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Major Warnings in endnotes.   
> If you are here for found family fluff, skip this one.

“Sit still, Remus,” She chided him, buckling him in. “This is safe, right? You swore it would be and these straps look worrisome,” She asked with concern to the giant mirror. Remus shifted uncomfortably, tugging and the strap. Virgil swallowed and gripped the buckle, staring at his mom. A speaker crackled to life with a noise that made Virgil jump.

“Yes,” The disembodied voice was distorted by the sizzling speaker, but it was firm and resolute. It didn't exactly abate any of their fears, however. 

“Can we please, go? I don’t like this,” Virgil whispered loudly to his mother, looking at her pleadingly.

“This is supposed to… fix you boys,” She frowned and sighed, straightening up. She adjusted her dress and walked out of the room. “Just… try not to move,” She gripped the door frame and glanced at them one more time before shutting the door behind her.

“I don’t wanna be here, I hate this,” Virgil whispered to Roman, his fingers grasping for anything to hold, but there was nothing in reach in his limited range.

“We just have to sit through it and we get ice cream,” Roman tried to reach out to Virgil, but they restrained his arms and Roman gave up, dropping his hand. He tried to shoot Virgil a reassuring smile, instead, but Virgil was still shaking and looked like he was about to cry. Roman had to be strong or there was no way his litter brothers would make it through this, either. “No more nightmares and daydreams, right?” Roman offered weakly. He was too scared to put any conviction behind it, but he couldn't blame them for hating it here, either. The straps were tight, the staff was cold, and the room was intense and alarming.

A green light dinged on and three people in biohazard suits stepped in. They carried an odd case that they fussed over while the three brothers fretted. Remus glared at the mirror angrily while Virgil fidgeted nervously in his seat. Roman tried to stay strong as the oldest, but his resolve wavered as the men approached them with some strange patches. 

They stuck one each on their foreheads and upper arms and connected them to the menacing machine in the back of the room that Roman was eternally grateful he wasn’t staring in that direction. The men in suits backed off after making sure the three had been strapped into the seats tightly, though they gave Remus some berth since he tried to kick them.

Roman tried to smile reassuringly at Virgil, but the patches stung. All three brothers flinched in pain, and Virgil hissed out loudly. Remus shouted angrily while Roman gritted and bared his teeth. They said this treatment was to make things better, right? No more weird things happening. It meant no more nightmares for any of them and no more hallucinations that overtook reality. Things would be easier for all three of them if they just rode it out. Mom said it was for the best. 

Virgil started crying from the stinging electrical feeling, and Roman gritted his teeth bitterly. He felt like a terrible big brother for being unable to help, but this was supposed to be better for all of them. Remus looked at Virgil and started trashing again, shouting out in anger, but the straps held him in place.

“When I get out of this chair I’m biting you!” Remus screeched savagely at the mirrored glass, but the intensity of the stinging kicked up and the three of them shouted out in pain.

“Mom!” Virgil cried desperately at the window, scrunching his eyes shut from the pain. “Mom, I’m scared! Please!” Virgil cried out between painful coughing.

“Why are you forcing us to do this?” Remus spat darkly, glowering even harder at the mirror despite the painful sensation that made him want to squeeze his eyes shut and pretend he wasn’t real. He wanted out, and he wanted to get back at them for doing this to them.

“It’s just… a little longer,” Roman hissed through his teeth as he curled in on himself as much as the straps would allow him to. The straps on his upper arms and torso felt too tight as his body tensed from the pain.

All three brothers flinched and cried out again as the intensity ramped up, and there was a loud beep as the light turned red. The men in biohazard suits cleared out of the room hastily. The door hissed shut loudly behind the retreating laboratory staff. Things only got more severe as it ramped up again after a loud click from the door’s lock. 

Virgil started feeling nauseous and Remus aggressively kicked his legs, trying to work loose. Roman forced himself to sit still, but he couldn’t stop crying out as the pain came in waves, clenching his fists so hard they bled. Remus’s cry was feral as Virgil broke down, desperately sobbing when the pain amped up one more time. Roman bit his tongue as he fought back his reaction to the pain.

The walls shifted with dark shadows growing from the floor, pulsating in a dark beat with each scream of pain that ripped through them. The shadows slithered up their bindings. Roman shrieked out in terror, thrashing his legs into the viscous shadows that built around them. Virgil gave in to the pain and the shadows, slumping to the horrid pain that spread through his skin as the darkness crawled through his veins.

Remus screamed victoriously as the shadow crept into his skin and the buckles restraining him creaked in protest as he fought. There was a pounding at the other side of the door as the room got consumed in inky blackness and a howling smoke-laden wind drowned all sounds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings:  
> Pain Inflicted on Children, Blood, Questionable Parenting, Questionable "Medical" Treatment, Horror Elements
> 
> Thanks to [Ocean](https://archiveofourown.org/users/midge1/pseuds/midge1) for Beta'ing!


	5. Secret Identities and Bitter Bonds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman is bad at math but good at survival skills.

Roman sighed as he flipped through the textbook. He could find a use for biology or English or art or literally any subject other than math. But he and Judgement got into an argument over the importance of it, and if Judgement’s opinion was that math was absolutely necessary, he needed to at least try it. What was he going to do? Create imaginary numbers to crush people or something? Was the _number_ four going to help him get people out of a burning building? It was dumb. But Judgement thought it was important, so Roman was just going to trust his… well, judgement.

A knock rang through the steel door that separates Roman’s room from the rest of Judgement and Rumination’s base. Roman panicked and threw up the Ace disguise and wrapped himself in illusion. He now looked like a fit adult dressed in white and gold body armour with a red half cape. Roman modeled the facial features after a mix of himself and a few other heroes, so he looked believable. It was all topped off with auburn hair that bounced with a _Superman_ coif. He slid the 7th-grade math textbook under a piece of paper.

“Y-yeah?” Roman used a deeper and older voice for Ace, but there was still a nervous crack that chipped at the illusionary voice from his nervousness.

“There was an incident earlier this afternoon at a bank. We’d like you to review the bank footage and help us parse the situation,” Judgement sounded muffled through the door, but it couldn’t diminish the firm clarity of his voice.

“Of course,” Roman said much more confidently and stood up from his desk. He double-checked to make sure he hid the book well enough and came out of his room.

Rumination was waiting for them at the giant console and looking extremely perturbed with his arms crossed and tapping his foot angrily. He was normally very upbeat, so it was unnerving to see him so frustrated. He practically vibrated with annoyance as he furrowed his face and drummed his fingers on his biceps.

“Are you alright?” Roman asked, his confidence wavering once more. He didn’t feel comfortable with Rumination acting this way. Roman felt like he was about to get told off for breaking something.

“I’m fine. I just don’t like this situation. And Sleep riled me up again,” Rumination’s tone was clipped as he stared ahead at the monitor.

“Fae wasn’t doing anything bad, right?” Roman shifted restlessly and curled in his shoulders. Remy rarely did, but…

“No, fae just jumbles my jimmies,” Rumination huffed. Roman looked to the monitor to see the bank feed of raptors running around and destroying the place. Roman stood up straighter and held his hands behind his back, assuming a pose that suited Ace better.

“Let’s get back on the subject I summoned you for, can we? Ace, can you create portals?” Judgement asked pointedly, examining Roman’s Ace illusion.

“ _Excuse_ me, I’ve been here all day, not creating raptors in some bank,” Roman rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, flipping his hand vaguely at the monitor.

“I am wondering if these powers look familiar to you in any way. I want to know if the powers are like yours or if they are completely unknown,” Judgement clarified, looking back to the monitors.

Roman stepped closer and checked out the bank feed. He could probably make raptors, though this was more than he should do alone. They moved around wildly, destroying things, which was also something Roman could manage. Illusions got out of hand and were destructive without tight control. So in that sense, they were familiar. Roman wasn’t sure it was safe to tell Judgement that, however. 

He noticed two raptors with darker plumage amongst the others and examined them curiously. One of the dark feathered raptors seemed to jump around when the other raptors destroyed more single-mindedly. The other stuck close to the T-Rex and barely destroyed anything after they broke through the day safe. Roman swallowed, feeling uneasy all over again. He couldn’t say anything to Judgement.

“They are very destructive,” Roman stated mildly. Those were his brothers. He’d recognize them anywhere, even wrapped up in dinosaur illusions. That must have been Deceit as the tyrannosaurus. Virgil always stuck close to Deceit when he couldn’t safely be near Remus or Roman since his powers were more unstable and he needed extra help sometimes. “Can you tell me what they did?” Roman asked, not looking away from the looping feed.

“They just broke in, stole some money from the day safe, spread it in the streets, and wrecked up the place. I can’t figure out the motivations for this,” Rumination chewed his thumbnail as he examined the velociraptor chaos. The motivation might have been that they were bored. Roman would love to run around as a raptor, too, honestly. 

It looked like fun. Even Virgil got into it, roaring and running around with the herd. He looked over to the other monitor to see a grainy traffic camera image of the portal and raptors and a T-Rex pouring out at a low frame rate. It was genuinely very impressive how they worked together to create all that havoc seamlessly. What they lacked in control they made up in might, for sure.

“So does it look familiar to anything you can do? We’d like to know what to expect in the future, since no villain came out and claimed this heist. If this is a super villain with powers similar to yours, we would have a situation on our hands,” Judgement sounded gravely serious as he spoke directly to Roman.

“No, this isn’t something I could do,” Roman technically told the truth, shaking his head. He could never pull this off alone.

Roman couldn’t betray his brothers by giving Judgement any clues. He also didn’t want to associate his powers with theirs, even though they all got the same powers. That would be a mess. Other than it getting out that his powers were actually not real, but also because then they could possibly connect Roman with the missing children’s case. Judgement had been working to find the three kids who had unstable superpowers running around town and had gotten obsessed with it. Roman once nearly out and admitted that he was one of them just to stop the frenzied pacing and rants about his concern. 

Giving him a single hint might be an even bigger catastrophe than just betraying his brothers. They all agreed to keep things private for their safety. Roman hadn’t revealed his ‘secret identity’ to Judgement and Rumination, but they let ‘Ace’ live here because he was ‘between jobs’. This was the safest way Roman could be a hero while risking nothing but himself. Even Deceit agreed that would be fine. They were a super genius, so Roman figured they were probably right.

“You seem oddly nervous, Ace,” Judgement stated plainly, crossing his arms as he glanced Roman up and down. Roman motioned towards the monitors and nodded.

“Yeah. The new unknown super villain and all,” Roman replied dismissively and drew up a hand to cover his mouth. He watched the footage a little longer and the raptors that were so clearly raptor Remus and Virgil caused havoc around tyrannosaurus Deceit’s feet.

“Yes, it is unsettling,” Rumination nodded in agreement. “How many supers can one city have, statistically?” Rumination mumbled under his breath. Judgement just hummed and made an unreadable expression.

“I will record as much information as I can. Thank you for your input, Ace,” Judgement responded, sitting down at the console. He didn’t seem suspicious anymore, luckily.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help,” Roman shrugged slightly and headed back into his room. He didn’t want to get asked any more questions and accidentally reveal something. He would rather get out of here than watch any more raptor shenanigans, as bitter a choice as it was.

After a pause to check he wasn’t followed into his room, Roman locked the door and triple-checked to make sure nobody was around. Roman exhaled heavily before he dropped the illusion and flopped down onto the bed. It was massive for a kid his size, and he always felt engulfed by it. The enormous bed helped relax him, even though it felt very empty. He missed his family. 

He didn’t enjoy huddling up to share body heat, and or sleeping on warehouse floors. He didn’t even like having to share a room. But things didn’t feel right without them around. It didn’t help that there were two strangers on the other side of the door that he couldn’t entirely trust. Roman thought back to the footage of his brother’s rampaging. At least it was nice to see them having fun while not hurting anyone, even if he was mad they were still doing stuff he wished they wouldn’t. Just because the bank is federally insured doesn’t mean they should do that kind of thing. 

Roman made a baffled noise and jumped when his cell phone rang and shook him from his reverie. Nobody is supposed to have this number. He got this from Judgement and Rumination and they were in the other room, so they had no reason to call him. Roman stared at the unknown number for a moment before answering it.

“Hi?” Roman greeted the strange caller, feeling completely lost.

“Hello darling, it’s your mother,” A cool and sweet voice cooed in response.

“My… mother?” Roman asked, now even more confused. He didn’t have a mother.

“Do you think I’m _deceiving_ you?” The kind voice answered, putting extra emphasis on the question.

“Oh—Oh, okay. I’m alone. Is there an emergency? Is everything okay?” Roman asked, sitting up in a shot when he realized who it was and why they might be calling. The phone signal got staticky as he spoke. Deceit must have done something to the connection.

“Virgil misses you and Remus is worn out from the afternoon and probably won’t attack,” Deceit replied, his now voice shifted back to normal. “You haven’t visited in a while and if you want to come to eat ice cream with them, I’m sure they’d like to see you. Virgil wants to learn how to fly and considering they both keep nearly hurting themselves trying, I’d appreciate it if you gave them a crash course in not crashing,” Deceit stated, giving Roman the hard sell right out the gate. They knew how to be very convincing.

“So Remus is still mad at me?” Roman asked sheepishly, curling around the phone and asking quietly.

“Reasonably so,” Deceit answered coolly. Roman sighed and ran his hand through his hair before blocking his mouth around the phone receiver with his palm again.

“I don’t suppose you’ll stop your nefarious ways?” Roman joked just to lighten the mood.

“Oh, yes, of course, since you asked so kindly,” Deceit’s voice was dripping with sarcasm, but he didn’t sound upset. “Would you like a pickup or will you bring yourself?” His question was airy and sounded distracted.

“I’ll visit myself,” Roman replied, standing up from the bed.

“Alright, you’ll have a ten-minute window of the security being turned off at 6 pm,” Deceit informed him and hung up on the spot. Roman checked his phone. Shit, he’d have to leave now to make it there in the window. Deceit’s compound was across the city from their base. Roman shot up and wrapped himself in the Ace illusion to head out. ‘Ace’ left Roman’s room and walked through the base towards the exit, passing Judgement still at the console.

“It is rare to see you leave when we aren’t patrolling,” Judgement stated blithely, not looking away from the screens.

“My mother called,” Roman chuckled to himself. “I’m just going to go see her for dinner. Please don’t follow me,” He lied, speaking as brightly as he could manage.

“Yes, we will respect your privacy,” Judgement nodded in agreement.

“Thanks,” Ace nodded in return and Roman picked up the pace, heading down the steel hall to the secret exit.

— ⌇ —

“Roman!” Virgil bounded up and rammed into him with a possessive hug and refused to let go as soon as Roman stepped out of the entrance.

“Hello, Virgil,” Roman hugged him back and ruffled his hair.

“Hey, fuckhead,” Remus flipped Roman off from the recliner while he watched TV.

“Hi, Re,” Roman responded more weakly, giving him a half-wave.

“Remus, play nice, he’s here to help,” Deceit warned, walking out of the dining area. “Welcome back, Roman,” He smiled, standing with his arms crossed. Roman didn’t say he would help, but if it would prevent them from getting hurt, he probably should. He wasn’t a fan of the idea of them having more precise control over their powers. They could wreak even more havoc. If anything, Roman got lucky he could manage his powers easier. But they were the ones in the worst boat before the accident, too. Roman always figured that was why. Virgil refused to let go still and was dragged along to the kitchen as Roman headed in there.

“I liked the raptor herd. It looked awesome,” Roman told Virgil with a small smile.

“It was so fun!” He bounced, finally letting go of Roman to raise his arms victoriously in the air.

“Did you eat already? It’ll help with practice,” Roman patted Virgil on the head, who shot him an annoyed look before the elation of getting to see Roman won out.

“We had fast food!” Virgil replied brightly, nodding.

“What about your vegetables?” Roman asked chidingly.

“You’re not our…” Remus trailed off, looking dour. Virgil paused and looked nervously at Remus.

“A little young to be a parent, don’t you think?” Janus smirked, ruffling Roman’s hair. Roman mumbled bitterly and fixed it. “They promised to eat extra vegetables tomorrow in exchange for ice cream. I assume you’re eating healthy over there?” They asked, arching an eyebrow. Roman bit his lip and looked away.

“So, uh, flying!” Roman changed the subject and Janus chuckled, patting Roman’s shoulder.

“We know your health is linked to the stability of illusions, Roman, don’t cut it too close. Virgil would be shattered if an illusion dropped mid-air, and then so did you,” Janus reminded him. Roman’s shoulders drooped and Virgil latched desperately on to Roman.

“No!” Virgil shot, shaking his head wildly.

“I take care of myself!” Roman held up his hands. “Well, they feed me healthy stuff, anyway. Judgement brings me dinners. I just also ate an entire bag of chips yesterday, too,” He added under his breath. Virgil looked at Roman with worry still. “Let’s eat ice cream and we can talk about flying,” Roman offered with a rising inflection, hoping they would drop this. Virgil nodded nervously, and Remus jumped off the back of the couch to join them in the kitchen.

“Remus, I’m not giving you thirds of ice cream. You’re going to get sick. You said you didn’t want to eat with him,” Janus rolled their eyes, heading to the deep freezer. They morphed another arm to open the freezer and pull out the ice cream while Janus and Remus got into an intense staring contest of wills. The arm held it up in the air and Remus crossed his arms and stomped a foot down angrily.

“They warned you earlier, Re. We can always have some another day, it’s not like we’re finishing it tonight,” Virgil looked to Remus with a frown.

There was a long pause of staring until Remus threw up his arms in defeat. “Fine! I still don’t want to eat ice cream with him anyway,” He cried out and dropped down on a dining chair, making grumpy noises.

Janus served up two bowls of ice cream and slid them on the table. They gave the scoop with a little ice cream in it to Remus, who took it gladly before putting away the ice cream and sitting at the table along with them. Roman took a few bites uncomfortably while Virgil stared at him, vibrating with distress still.

“Um, so what is it about flying that’s hard?” Roman asked, looking between Virgil and Remus. Remus just huffed and crossed his arms again after dropping the scoop that he licked clean on the table.

“Physics, I guess? It’s easy to send stuff up, but it’s hard to keep it from going down,” Virgil explained, poking his fingers together nervously.

“They’re not real, though,” Roman furrowed his eyebrows and jabbed his spoon into the ice cream a few times.

“We have to pretend they’re real or summoned illusions drop, stupid,” Remus flipped his hand, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, but…” Roman trailed off. Virgil took a bite of ice cream and looked at Roman curiously. “You can’t just tell it to fly like it can?” He hooked his thumbs and flapped his fingers around the spoon for a moment.

“No,” Virgil shook his head, looking sadly down at his bowl. “I can barely get them to listen to me half the time,” He added under his breath.

“You did great this afternoon, I saw footage from the bank,” Roman offered reassuringly.

“You think?” Virgil looked up to Roman happily.

“Yes, you both did wonderfully,” Janus nodded at Virgil, who positively beamed. Remus looked proud of himself for a second before continuing to glower at Roman.

“Can you show me?” Roman asked. “Something little, I’m sure you’re wiped after that,” He added. Virgil nodded and held out a finger. A little black star was sent flying up and held in the air momentarily before unceremoniously dropping to the table silently and dissipating in front of Virgil. “Even something that small?”

“The only thing I can make fly so far is bugs. Except for bees. Dadceit explained it, but I don’t follow how they fly yet,” Virgil sighed, poking at his ice cream with his spoon.

“I can do bees,” Remus held up a finger. “Virgil’s over-thinking it as usual,” He suggested, still miffed.

“You’re just mad because I do better during lessons,” Virgil stuck out his tongue at Remus. Remus retaliated by flipping Virgil off.

“Boys,” Janus tapped on the table shortly. “There are hamuli that connect the wings and they twist and rotate at—” They tried to explain, but nobody was listening.

“I’m better with stiff wings or something!” Virgil replied defensively, cutting Janus off.

“It’s light, and it has wings, I can make a pebble fly with those rules,” Remus scoffed.

“If you can make a rock fly with wings, they can’t you make it fly without?” Roman asked, eating another scoop of ice cream. “Pretend you have telekinesis or something,” He added.

“If it were that easy, don’t you think I’d be able to do it?” Remus growled, slumping down in the chair.

“Maybe you’re just too stubborn to believe in yourself enough to do it,” Roman grumbled, jabbing at his ice cream and taking a big bite. The mouthful of ice cream gave him brain freeze, and he made a distressed noise while flapping his arms. Remus pointed and laughed at him delightedly, and Virgil gripped the table until Roman held his face in his hands to make the sensation subside.

“So you’re saying their confidence in their powers might be an issue?” Janus asked curiously after Roman exhaled a chilly breath and the brain freeze left.

“Uh, sure?” Roman shrugged, unsure. It sounded fine.

“How can I be confident in my powers when every time I panic they turn on me?” Virgil grumbled, stabbing at the ice cream angrily.

“What’s it called… um… Janus. The thing where they show you the things to make you less afraid of the things?” Roman asked, snapping his fingers.

“Exposure therapy. I would agree, but Virgil has choked _himself_ out once. I think the adverse reactions—”

“Brain demon attacks,” Remus piped up, making a stabbing motion with the utensil in his hand.

“ _Thank you_ , Remus,” Janus huffed and rolled their eyes. “That might be related to his fear-sensing powers, making him overly sensitive to panic. The issue should lessen with time as those develop,” Janus tilted his head to the side, examining Virgil.

“I saw this one movie where a guy kept his throat open with a metal pipe while they were hanging him. Can you do that?” Roman took another bite of ice cream.

“I’m not putting metal down his throat so illusions can’t choke him. They could still hurt him in other ways, even if we weren’t all perfectly aware they can generate enough force to rend metal,” Janus stated shortly, looking at Roman out of the side of his eye. “Also, I’m not sure that movie was for your age group,” He added, looking critically at Roman.

“We saw worse from ourselves every day,” Remus grumbled. “You know the illusions never go for something you’ve already protected,” He sagged, dropping his head to the table. Janus looked at Remus in surprise and raised an eyebrow at him for a pause.

“No one can say Remus isn’t already desensitized,” Janus hummed curiously. “So this stems from your inadequacy—” Janus tried to speak, but Remus just started yelling indignantly over them. “ _Very_ mature, Remus,” Janus shouted over him. Remus stopped and stuck out his tongue at Janus. “Well. Focusing on developing Virgil’s fear-sensing powers over the illusionary ones could help him. On the other hand, you seem to have gotten more clever about how to use your powers to defend yourself. How about a spar with Remus?” Janus suggested, flipping his hand. Remus sat up with excitement, gripping at the table.

“But the heist…” Roman pointed his spoon at Remus.

“Come back in a few days to visit your _dear old mother_. It could help Remus hurt himself less, as long as the outcome is _as expected_ ,” Janus looked at Roman pointedly. Roman just stared at him in confusion for a moment, not understanding what they meant by that. “You know, _throw_ each other around a bit?” Janus sighed, rolling their eyes and twisting their finger in the air. Roman realized what they meant and swallowed. Janus wanted Roman to throw the fight. “Maybe there will be a little less ill will between you two if you work it out a bit. Hold back, of course, no killing each other,” He added when Virgil looked at them with an offended expression.

“Aw,” Remus drawled sarcastically. Virgil pouted, and a pebble ricocheted off Remus’s face before disappearing. “Hey,” He shot a sour expression at Virgil.

“No throwing things at Remus outside of the training hall, Virgil,” Janus shot Virgil a look, and he lowered his head for a moment before returning to his ice cream.

“If you think it’ll help Remus be safer,” Roman nodded, feeling resigned. He didn’t want them to have better control, but it sounded like Janus already knew how to solve it. It was an eventuality. And maybe there will be less danger to civilians, too. Roman could feel good about that. He smiled at Virgil before returning to finishing his ice cream.

“Do you want any other lessons made up or study materials, Roman? You haven’t asked for any in a while,” Janus asked, holding their head on their bridged fingers.

“Um, I think I’m slipping in math, it’s getting harder for me to follow,” Roman admitted quietly.

“I’m great at math!” Virgil piped up, kicking his feet under the table.

“You’re doing well, Virgil, yes. Did you bring the tablet so I can update it?” Janus raised an eyebrow at Roman. Crud. Roman made a guilty expression. “That’s fine,” They grinned, pulling out a flash drive from their pocket and holding it up. “If you put this in the intranet, I can return to updating it wirelessly,” Janus tossed it at Roman, and he caught it with a net illusion that dropped it in his hands. Roman examined it with apprehension for a moment.

“You won’t do anything to their system, right?” Roman asked nervously, holding up the flash drive.

“If I wanted to do something to them, I would have already. Just because they annoy me doesn’t mean I harbour ill will. Their ‘secret base’ isn’t that _secret_ when you have my technology. I am impressed you were able to fly here that fast, by the way. I thought I would have to hold it open a little longer,” Janus flashed a toothy grin at Roman.

“Rumination has some fancy stuff, too, aren’t you worried about him finding _you_?” Roman asked curiously.

“The flash drive will fry itself after its done its job. If I can’t get on the network through that, just remember the tablet next time you visit. I designed the firmware to kill itself as soon as someone tries to look at it. You can always reinstall it, and since I promise not to do anything incredibly _nefarious_ with it, there’s no loss,” Janus shrugged dismissively, still smiling. “Just try to make sure you don’t get tailed when you visit and submit to a localized EMP and we should be lovely,” They leaned on their arm, looking confident.

“Oh, should I have done that today?” Roman grimaced, looking down with apprehension.

“ _Should_ you have?” Janus arched an eyebrow at him.

“Um, no, I don’t think they suspect me or anything. Rumination thought it was weird I left when I wasn’t scheduled to go on patrol, but he didn’t have time to do anything about it. I’m only wearing stuff you got me and left the phone,” Roman’s tone sounded unsure, but Janus wasn’t worried. They just continued to smile at him.

“Are patrols fun?” Virgil asked curiously.

“Yeah! It’s much easier as a hero! People are friendly and I even got a pie the other day,” Roman announced brightly. “When you help people as a vigilante, there’s no trust,” He scoffed.

“Are your lessons going all right? Other than math, that is,” Janus sounded concerned.

“I’m a little behind on other stuff, too. It’s not as easy when I can’t just ask you, and Rumination works me pretty hard. There are all kinds of drills and training outside of patrols. It drives me up the wall sometimes. We prepare for situations not even Toby is dastardly enough to do. And that guy’s an ass!” Roman flailed up his arm in objection.

“Being half-dead will do that to you, I assume,” Janus snickered to themselves. “Shame you can’t explain that we’re all just people who might have reasons for what we do that are probably worth listening to,” They rolled their eyes and sighed.

“Yeah!” Roman nodded enthusiastically. “Wait, what?” He realized he didn’t entirely follow what Janus was saying.

“It’s fine as long as you’re safe and not risking us, either. If you’re connected to me again, I can answer questions when I’m available. I don’t want you to fall behind in your lessons, but do take care of yourself, Roman. Construct creation is supposed to be very draining. You can start pretending you’re getting tired out earlier if you’re too scared of telling Rumination he’s overworking you,” Janus suggested, tilting their head to one side.

“What, not good enough to keep up?” Remus jeered with a dark grin.

“Remus. You take breaks, too,” Janus huffed with exasperation.

“No, it’s… it’s fine. Nobody said I had to make it back for this evening’s practice or anything…” Roman trailed off, not sure where he was going with that.

“Oh! Oh! Play a game with me! Please! Please!” Virgil bounced in his chair excitedly, looking desperately at Roman. “It’s been three whole weeks!” He added pleadingly.

“I—well,” Roman hummed, unsure.

“Yeah, play a game for an hour or two and leave us all over again,” Remus hopped out of the dining chair and slammed it into the table. “I’m going to my room,” He added angrily. Roman flinched and watched him go sadly.

“I’ll go talk to him, go play in the recreational room,” Janus put both hands on the table and stood up from it as well.

“Are you sure?” Roman swallowed, feeling morose.

“Sure that I don’t want Virgil to have a meltdown? Always,” Janus waved and headed down the hall after Remus. Roman sighed and turned back to Virgil, who was staring at Roman intensely, gripping the hem of his hoodie tightly.

“You wouldn’t—well—nevermind. Come on,” Roman picked up his empty ice cream bowl and went to the sink to rinse it out. Virgil hopped up excitedly, standing right behind him with his own bowl. “You’re not worried about Remus?” Roman glanced down the hall again as he dried off his hands.

“He’s been real moody since you left, this is normal,” Virgil shook his head, stepping up to the sink. “I’m no good at talking to him. I don’t really understand either of your standpoints or whatever. I wanna spend time with you while you’re here and me and Re can blow off steam together later after he calms down and is less likely to scare me,” Virgil admitted sheepishly, poking his fingers together.

“Oh, sure,” Roman nodded, looking down the hall that Remus stormed down before turning back to Virgil. “Maybe all three of us can play together after we spar in a few days,” He suggested. Virgil’s face lit up, and he started nodding enthusiastically as they walked to the recreation room together. Virgil grasped at Roman’s hand and Roman gave it a squeeze and picked up the pace, shooting Virgil a restrained smile. “Hopefully, anyway,” Roman added under his breath. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to [Lallaina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lallaina/pseuds/Lallaina) for being a beta, but also being a fantastic, wonderful, and kind person!

**Author's Note:**

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